This invention relates to agarose and galactomannan-containing electrophoretic gels. Agarose is a polysaccaride purified from agar-agar and commonly used to form aqueous buffered electrophoretic gels for nucleic acid fractionation. Various other hydrocolloid polymers of synthetic or natural origin including polyacrylamide and galactomannan have been combined with agarose for the electrophoresis of nucleic acids and other macromolecules. For example Peacock et al., Biochemistry, 7, No. 2, 668-674 (1968) utilize acrylamide gels strengthened with agarose for separation and analysis of RNAs. Cook et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,911 utilize an agarose gel containing a clarified galactomannan gum (CGM), such as clarified locust bean gum (CLBG) for isoelectric focussing in which differences in net charge among protein molecules are used to separate the molecules in the gel. Gurske, U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,121 combines an acid polysaccaride or a galactomannan polysaccharide with a gelling polysaccharide such as agarose to form an electrophoretic gel. The gel compositions of Gurske are said to improve the separation of protein isoenzymes having differences in electrical charge but similar molecular weights.
Perlman et al. in Analytical Biochemistry, 163, 247-254 (1987) describe use of locust bean gum galactomannan in combination with agarose and Tris-borate-EDTA (TBE) buffer to fractionate DNA fragments.